A full fifth episode of Red Dwarf has been recorded in front of a studio audience for the first time since 1998. G&T were there, in the manly form of Danny Stephenson, along with Jez Harrison of TORDFC. As soon as the episode finished, they raced back to G&T Towers to discuss their findings with Ian Symes, who sneakily recorded their every word. Yes, this week’s set report is in DwarfCast form. Listen now to discover why this recording was the longest one yet, how this episode does something that Red Dwarf has never done before, and get the full story behind the shocking fire alarm drama.

Next week’s set report will return to its usual written format, and we’ll be attempting to round up any non-spoilery details that haven’t already been covered for Series XI so far. If you’ve got any unanswered questions, let us know in the comments, or by emailing admin@ganymede.tv. Our diligent reporter will attempt to answer all your queries next week, providing they’re not requests for entire transcripts or anything.

Hurrah shit day at work over. Straight into being cheered up by an up to the minute brilliant dwarf cast.
Best set report yet, very exciting and intriguing. Definitely going to have to
Listen to this again after this episode airs.

When you say its very blue, do you mean that set its covered with Rimmer munchkins?

This cat long chat, longer than duct soup or dear dave then? Those are the only two i can think of
Cus i hate them both as scenes. This news has me worried but optimistic cus you don’t seem to feel
Its a bad scene. Cat in quarantine im totally fine with so if its nearer that in interaction that will be very interesting i certain never mind that doug mixes these things up and try’s more with the dynamics between just two characters especially since holly left the screen.

The steady cam stuff should make one
Episode stand out. It did for series 3

I was there too last night. Cannot listen to your pod cast yet but thought I’d share my thoughts.

Was the best episode of Red Dwarf that I’ve seen since season 7, possibly season 6. It was fantastic, really old school Red Dwarf. If this episode is representative of the rest of the season, then a hell of a lot of people are going to be happy with Red Dwarf XI/Xii.

Naturally I’m not going to share spoilers, but I must say it was a really good and at times hilarious episode. The [censored – G&T] part genuinely had me in stitches the 4th time I saw them do it.

The cast were all on good form, bar Craig Charles who clearly has too much attitude to be doing this any more. I used to like/respect the guy, but his attitude towards the end stunk. He didn’t even come to bow at the end which I though was extremely rude (given he’d made a number of rude comments to other staff in the prior hour). That’s not to say that Craig didn’t perform well on camera, he screwed up the least, it just isn’t as enjoyable when you’ve got someone who clearly thinks they’re better than everyone else around them.

Moving on – the studio is smaller than RD:X – as was the audience. I was pleased to see it was a packed out crowd – which was lucky given I had standby tickets – phew. No empty chairs that I could see, although a staff member did comment to say there were around 200 seats, which I think is about 100 down on X? As a result of the smaller studio (Doug actually said he was a little disappointed with the size), much of the episode was filmed on temporary sets off to the right of the studio. I could just about see some of it being filmed, but ended up watching on screens/monitors after the first take. The whole set looks so much better in my opinion than RD:X – it just felt more old school Red Dwarf. One thing I’d add though is that I still think it’s too dark in general – and I’m not a massive fan of the new modern camera style which was introduced between S8 and X.

Ultimately, and keeping it spoiler free – this was a fantastic episode, I genuinely think people are going to love it when they see it. Cat was by far the funniest in the show this time around, but there were numerous genuinely belly-achingly-funny scenes.

Love Dwarf, and excited to see the rest of the series next year! Oh and I thought the bug looked fantastic from what I saw (again couldn’t see it due to temporary sets but it looked fantastic on the screens).

Yes let’s not give Craig a hard time. It was a long night and perhaps he needed a dump. I didn’t see any bad attitude from him and I was sat in the front row. He often kept us entertained with some funny off script comments. Perhaps he was a little tired and frustrated from the numerous retakes but that’s acceptable isn’t It? He left Corrie to do this and other things and thank smeg for that. Let’s keep supporting cast and crew. Amazing night. This episode could be a classic.

Even though I know nothing of the series other than what’s been said on G&T, this does sound like the best episode so far. Maybe just the detail about the long conversation is swinging it for me. And I also want to see different kinds of scenes in Dwarf, which it sounds like this episode might have. One of my favourite scenes in X, perhaps 2nd only to the Lister vs. his father scene from Father’s & Suns, is the Cat/Rimmer scene in The Beginning, where Cat comes in when Rimmer is supposed to be formulating his plan. It just plays a little differently simply due to Cat being in the scene.

I think it’s worth noting that the cast and crew are working their arses off to make this series, under plenty of pressure, short on time etc. so if they get a little stressed during a 4hr+ recording, we can cut them a bit of slack, methinks. :) Plus, Craig did need to rush off, as has already been said. All’s good. :)

Just noticed Robert retweeted an image macro featuring Kryten and some sort of quote which I won’t describe or link to in case it contains a potential spoiler for the new series. Could anyone verify whether it’s an actual line from an XI episode? If so…it..doesn’t sound great.

I was there too last night. Cannot listen to your pod cast yet but thought I’d share my thoughts.

Was the best episode of Red Dwarf that I’ve seen since season 7, possibly season 6. It was fantastic, really old school Red Dwarf. If this episode is representative of the rest of the season, then a hell of a lot of people are going to be happy with Red Dwarf XI/Xii.
Naturally I’m not going to share spoilers, but I must say it was a really good and at times hilarious episode. The [censored – G&T] part genuinely had me in stitches the 4th time I saw them do it.
The cast were all on good form, bar Craig Charles who clearly has too much attitude to be doing this any more. I used to like/respect the guy, but his attitude towards the end stunk. He didn’t even come to bow at the end which I though was extremely rude (given he’d made a number of rude comments to other staff in the prior hour). That’s not to say that Craig didn’t perform well on camera, he screwed up the least, it just isn’t as enjoyable when you’ve got someone who clearly thinks they’re better than everyone else around them.
Moving on – the studio is smaller than RD:X – as was the audience. I was pleased to see it was a packed out crowd – which was lucky given I had standby tickets – phew. No empty chairs that I could see, although a staff member did comment to say there were around 200 seats, which I think is about 100 down on X? As a result of the smaller studio (Doug actually said he was a little disappointed with the size), much of the episode was filmed on temporary sets off to the right of the studio. I could just about see some of it being filmed, but ended up watching on screens/monitors after the first take. The whole set looks so much better in my opinion than RD:X – it just felt more old school Red Dwarf. One thing I’d add though is that I still think it’s too dark in general – and I’m not a massive fan of the new modern camera style which was introduced between S8 and X.
Ultimately, and keeping it spoiler free – this was a fantastic episode, I genuinely think people are going to love it when they see it. Cat was by far the funniest in the show this time around, but there were numerous genuinely belly-achingly-funny scenes.
Love Dwarf, and excited to see the rest of the series next year! Oh and I thought the bug looked fantastic from what I saw (again couldn’t see it due to temporary sets but it looked fantastic on the screens).

just on Craig not bowing at the end, I think he was incredibly rushed as it ran over, I was sat at the very far right front row and he stood next to me waved at the crowd and dashed, he does DJ sets at clubs so maybe even had another obligation… or he just couldnt be ***ed who knows? I didn’t notice too much attitude from him, made a couple of funny one liners in between takes and he actually stood next to me for the whole of the scene with Cat and Kryten and watched it on the monitor in front of me.

decent quality stuff for the episode, although one or two cringey jokes that didnt work for me, I think someone younger needs to be collaborating with Doug personally when the scripts are being written